God answered my prayer right away!!! We now have a nanny for Hannah. When I went home last Wednesday, my brother’s MIL called me and told me she found someone who’s willing to be a nanny for Hannah and at the same time an all around helper. She’s been with her for a couple of days and has to let her go because her old helper returned. My brother’s MIL said yaya J is hard working and loves to play with kids. She said that from her observation during yaya J’s stay in her house, she’ll be a good yaya and that I don’t need to worry because she knows her since she came from their province.

And so she started yesterday and based from my observation she’s ok naman. I also asked yaya R to observe her. I do hope she’s really good and will stay with us. :)

Last weekend, we did some spring cleaning in the house, which reminded me that I also need to do some cleaning on our PCs. But it’s more of “put in storage” than spring cleaning. I’ve managed to collect tons of files the last few months and I’m down to my last gigabytes. So I would need several hard drives for both at home and at work. What I do every now and then is shuffle my files from the PCs to my also-down-to-the-last-gigabytes external drive and several USB sticks. Now if I could get my hands on one of those terabyte drives, given the time and a great connection speed, I’m sure I could fill that up in no time.

I blogged before that I’m having a dilemma on having someone else, someone I don’t really know, take care of Hannah but since I can’t do anything as of the moment I have to live with it. And so last Saturday, I was going to talk to our new nanny about the rules in our house especially in taking care of Hannah. I was just about to start when she told me she can’t do it, that what she wants to do is just the household chores but she doesn’t want to take care of the baby. And since taking care of Hannah is my priority, I let her go. I told her that my cousin needs someone like her and she can transfer there. So that same day, I called my cousin to pick her up.

And now I have a new problem. I’m not sure if I can ask Hannah’s current yaya to stay longer until we can find a replacement. I feel that the most she can stay is up to first week of February. What if by then we still can’t find a yaya for Hannah? What am I going to do? I can’t resign from work now and I can’t ask my parents to come here in the Philippines just to take care of their grandchildren. I’m starting to have sleepless nights because of this. Hopefully we can find one real soon. If you can recommend someone, please let me know. Thanks a lot!

We have a new helper/nanny at home. I picked her up at my friend’s house last night and it’s her first day today. I should be happy since there’ll be someone who’ll take care of Hannah when her nanny leaves, right? But no! This is my first time ever to hire a household help. I’m so not used to it and a lot of negative thoughts are flooding my mind right now. I never got used to having someone I don’t know inside our house. I grew up with only my mom taking care of all of us. The nanny/helper I have now has been with us for 11 years already. She started with my brother’s family and when they migrated, she transferred to us. And since she’s been with us for so long, I don’t treat her as someone else. She’s already part of the family.

So what’s my problem? I’m scared of having someone I don’t really know too well living with us in our home and taking care of my daughter. When Paul, my sister and I will go to work on weekdays, there’ll only be the two nannies and the two kids who’ll be left behind. It’s ok if my trusted nanny R will just stay home and take care of Lance. But what if Lance wants to go out and play? Nanny P will be left in the house with just my little princess and I don’t think I can handle that.

People have been telling me to observe her first and give her the benefit of a doubt. Maybe she’s trustworthy and can really take care of my daughter well. I do hope and pray she’ll do her job well. I’m thinking of resigning from work so I’ll be the one to take care of the kids and we won’t need an additional nanny. It will just be me and our trusted Ate R. I really don’t know what to do. Times are hard now and I don’t think it will be wise if I resign from work. Haayyy… for now, what I can do is I pray to God that our new nanny will be as trustworthy and as reliable as Ate R. Good luck to us! Pray for us too :)

Just want to share some pics of Lance and Paul (with Hannah watching) inside the playroom. As you can see, Lance can stand at Paul's back all by himself. Hehe! This is how we usually spend our weekends, either watching videos, reading or playing inside the room. :)

Do you know what I’m doing right now? Checking out online stores and going through their items especially the ones that are on sale. Like most guys, I don’t go out and shop that much. But now I can go and shop at my own leisurely pace from the comfort of my own home. Still I’m not an impulsive buyer. For major purchases, if I see something I like online, I try to read reviews about it and go to local shops to check it out for myself. Which kinds of defeats the purpose, but not if it’s on sale.

The kids got a lot of clothes for Christmas from their godparents and uncles and aunts, which was good. Most of them were gifts from relatives overseas, so they got clothes from catimini and other brands. Hannah was the one who got the most clothes, most of which were pink. Toni’s already thinking of what to put on Hannah even if we’re just at home.

I’m now back at work after the long holiday. I was also on leave yesterday and the other day because there a family reunion and we had guests around the house. Anyway, what I now have here at my table are several gifts from suppliers and partners. It’s those usual little gift aka promotional product from people we have worked with the past year. Well, at least I have something new to decorate my desk.